


III

by zanni_scaramouche



Series: Vulgar [3]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gang AU, Gun Violence, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kidnapping, Mafia AU, Mild Gore, Non-Penetrative Sexual Assault, Pre-Slash, Prequel, child grooming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:41:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanni_scaramouche/pseuds/zanni_scaramouche
Summary: Harry doesn’t need another brother, he needs a best friend.He’s eight and trying not to cry, he’s eleven and holding a gun, he’s fifteen and wiping a strangers blood off his face. His life is far from average, but sometimes that’s hard to forget when it’s the only one he knows.PART 3 - Reading previous parts in the series is advised but NOT necessary for full comprehension.
Series: Vulgar [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666684
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	III

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings:
> 
> Human Trafficking, Sexual Assualt (non-penetrative) of a minor, Gun Violence, Child Abuse, Children handling Guns, Kidnapping, Mild Gore, plus a dash of Child Grooming. Plus a (veeery light) sprinkle of mentioned Harry/Camille
> 
> And I’m sure much more vile things for which I’m sure I’ve pinged a few warning bells while googling. Please be aware of the nature of this story. There is no smut(not even the badwrong kind), it is mature solely due to the violent content. The author in no way endorses or condones the actions depicted or alluded to. Read safe. 
> 
> Note: 
> 
> This starts out in a very disjointed narrative voice. It is a chosen style that alters as the story moves along, please do not be put off by it. Things get better, I swear.

He’s been with Simon for two years. Simons says it’s his birthday even though it’s not really his birthday. It’s when he was ripped out of the hands of his mum when he lost sight of her at a busy park, and then he was ripped out of the hands of the mean guys who lied about having a dog and shoved him the back of a van, and now he holds Zayn’s hand while crossing the street. Zayn is nice. Simon is not nice, but he has a nice house with a big TV and Harry’s allowed to watch whatever he wants on it. Mum used to make him turn it off after an hour, and Gemma always stole the remote. Zayn doesn’t care because he prefers to draw and sometimes he lets Harry colour it in even if he goes outside the lines, so that’s nice too. 

The new school is the same as his old school except all the people are different. His teacher Mr. Fallon does the voices when he reads a story to the class and Harry likes that a lot. Simon never reads bedtime stories like mum used to and sometimes Harry gets sad about it, but Simon doesn’t like it when they are sad so he hides under the covers and pretends he isn’t crying. Zayn always knows when he is, but he doesn’t tell. Harry thinks Zayn’s always a little sad so he tries to bring him the brightest markers home from school and it’s not stealing because he asked Mr. Fallon using please and thank you’s and he brings them back after they’ve used them. Zayn likes green best. Harry thought Zayn was his best friend but Zayn said they weren’t friends, they’re brothers. Harry’s not sure if he likes having a brother or sister more. He can’t talk about it so he tries not to think of Gemma too much or else he gets sad again. 

There’s a new kid in his class and Harry’s really excited because he was the new kid for a year and everyone already had friends. He has a funny accent some kids tease him about it and someone said Harry said something mean even though it wasn't Harry, it was the kid standing behind Harry, but the new kid couldn't see around him so he punched Harry in the face. When they're waiting in office for Simon the new kid says he's sorry and tells him he doesn’t have friends because he’s new, so Harry makes sure to be his friend. He makes Harry laugh a lot. They go on adventures like this one time they had really big sticks and pretended to be knights with swords but then Mr. Fallon put them in a time out because they’re not supposed to fight even if it’s pretend because they might hurt each other. Harry doesn’t want to hurt his friend because that would be mean and his mum told him no one likes meanies. Also his friend taught him how to spit really far and afterwards they shook hands with their spit in it and said they were brothers. Harry said he didn’t need another brother because he already had one, but he did need a best friend. So Niall’s his best friend forever. They shook on it and everything. 

Zayn is already nine which is really close to being ten so he doesn’t like to do a lot of the things Harry likes to do because he says they’re too kiddy. Harry likes to play with toys, but right now it’s really just the one dinosaur Simon’s friend Cal bought him for his pretend birthday. The candle on the cake had been an eight. He thinks dinosaurs are the coolest and he and Niall spend a lot of time making dinosaur sounds as they dig up their bones in the sand pit at school. Simon says he can’t be a dinosaur when he grows up and he’s not allowed in the house until all the sand is off. Harry tries his best but a lot of it gets in his hair and he can’t get it out until he gets to the bathtub. If Simon is grumpy he makes him use the hose and Harry doesn’t like that because it’s really cold and sometimes he cries which makes Simon grumpier. 

He has to tell Niall he can’t play in the sand pit anymore so they play cops and robbers with the other kids. Sometimes it makes Harry feel a little funny but he doesn’t know why. Simon says he can’t talk to cops and he gets really angry whenever uncle Cal talks about them. Harry’s not supposed to know what they talk about because Simon shuts the door to his office but sometimes he and Zayn will play spies and eavesdrop even though they always get caught and when they get caught they get in trouble. 

After his eleventh birthday, and he calls it his real birthday now because he can’t remember his old one, he gets in big trouble. Zayn says it first. His eyes go really wide and he uses a curse word because he does that a lot now. 

“We’re in big shit.”

That’s what he says while looking at the brand new bullet hole in the wall. The gun is left on the floor by Simon’s desk where they absolutely should not have been snooping, but they had and when they’d found the gun they’d thought there’s no way it would fire. They were wrong. And it doesn’t matter which one of them pulled the trigger because they’re both in the room when Simon slams open the door. Simons doesn’t usually hit them, and if he does it’s usually one strike to teach a lesson and make sure it sticks. The beating they get that day sure as hell makes the lesson stick. 

The issue is they won't tell him who did it. Harry keeps saying he didn’t do it and Zayn says he didn’t do it, and Simon keeps saying he’s not going to stop until they tell him who. When Harry’s older he’ll know Simon was only pushing them around, manhandling them but not putting real force behind it because he might have been an ass but he was far from stupid. He doesn’t know that at eleven years old. All he knows is he’s been pushed to the ground while Simons crouches down by the desk and Zayn is keeping his head down. Then he sees Simon pick up the gun and point it at Zayn. 

“Harry’s too much of a pussy to touch a gun, I know it was you Zayn. Say you’re sorry.” He’s using the dad voice he uses in public sometimes and it’s so out of place the whole world tilts until it doesn’t make sense for Harry. 

“I’m sorry, sir.” 

Zayn’s quiet tone is really different from how he was just saying he didn’t do it. Zayn drags his sleeve under his nose and Harry thinks maybe he’s crying even though he says crying is for babies. Simon nods his head at Harry. Think, move, do something his mind screams at him. But his body stays frozen on the ground with his eyes locked disbelieving with the gun.

“Now say goodbye to Harry.” 

“It was me!” Harry throws himself in front of Zayn before the other boy can say a thing. “It was me, I did it.” He hiccups through his statement, chest jerking with adrenaline, “It was my idea to break into your office. It was me who-who fired the gun.” 

“Harry,” Zayn whispers sharply behind him and tries to nudge him out of the way. 

Harry stumbles a little at Zayn’s push so he steps forward, right up to the gun and covers it with his small hands so it’s pressed against his forehead. Simon’s stony face looks down at him like a giant ready to stomp him out, the muzzle held steady. 

“You’re sure?” 

Harry nods, squinting a lot because he’s crying and Simon hates it when he’s crying but he’s going to have to forgive him one last time. “Yes sir, it was me.” 

Zayn’s still tugging at his back and trying to talk over him when Simon pulls the trigger and the gun clicks. 

A moment of silence. Harry’s holding his breath. He thinks Zayn’s arms are around his tummy like a backwards hug, he can feel him shuddering on his back. Harry blinks as fat tears roll down his face. Simon lowers the gun. 

“Good boys.” He says and pats Harry’s head. 

He takes Harry’s limp hand and places the gun in it. The cold steel weight of it feels like an anchor dragging him down to the bottom of the ocean. It sure sounds like the ocean is rushing through his ears when Simon makes stern eye contact with a harsh grip on his shoulder.

“You are brothers. The world will try to pull you apart, but you must never turn on your brother. There is no one else you can trust. No one. Understood?” 

“Understood.” Zayn says behind him. 

Harry nods his head, shudders a breath. 

“Understood.” He croaks. 

Simon holds the door open. 

“Let’s show you boys how to shoot for real, hm?” He doesn’t look back to see if they’re following. Wherever Simon goes they will always follow. They have to. “Harry, you need to work on your lying. You stutter like a dunce.” 

Harry does work on his lying. In fact, he lies quite a lot in the next few years. He lies to Niall about why he wasn’t at footy practice when Simon pulls him and Zayn out to uncle Cal’s farm to butcher cows and skin pigs. He lies about the bruises he gets from boxing with Zayn in the basement when Simon wont let them stop until they physically drop from exhaustion. He lies about being the only one in the house when two armed men get the jump on him and pin him face down to the polished entrance hall floor. 

All those hours spent in the basement are useless when he’s a lanky fifteen against two mature men made of bricks. The guy on top of him laughs as he bucks up, Harry’s feet trying to hook his on the guys leg or get him with a head to the nose but it’s no use and he feels like a floundering fish as the guy straddles his back. He whoops and smacks Harry’s ass. 

“Oh he’s a little frisky one, ain't you? Does daddy dearest do it like this? Make you take it like a little bitch.”

The other man stands nearby to watch and both men jeer crudely at him. He tries to block it out but his face flushes in shame at the remarks they keep making. He’s touched a few girls, likes their soft curves almost as much as he likes the glimpses of shirtless players in the locker rooms, but the most he’s done is kiss that one girl with his tongue while palming her breast. Now he’s got near two hundred pounds humping against him and he can feel the obscene line of the man’s cock through layers of jeans. 

“C’mon lover boy, let’s see what you’ve got. Bet you’ll even like it,” The man’s breath on his skin wraps him in the humid stench of alcohol. “I wanna leave a little gift for pops right where I know he’ll find it.” 

A hand tugs the waist of his pants and Harry gets desperate. The only advantage of being skinny is how slippery he can make himself be if he just keeps moving. Flailing madly he manages to twist onto his back as the man’s yanking at his jeans and finally, even with his hands pinned overhead in a clammy fist and his pants torn halfway down his thighs he manages to headbutt the guy hard enough to warrant an instant gush of blood. 

The man keeps Harry’s wrists pinned but grabs his bleeding face with the other hand and Harry gets a knee up into his balls with just enough force to weaken the hold. The other guy who’d been watching is one step away from keeping Harry down when blood explodes from his head with a bang. Harry flinches and slams his eyes shut, turning his head a second too late to avoid the spray as another bullet sounds and the body on top of him slumps. 

Hot blood trickles down his face, carving the same tracks his frustrated tears had taken like a weeping angel. Blindly he pushes the body off of him and stands on wobbly feet, tugging at his pants and realising his shirt is shredded where it was pulled on by meaty hands. His own fingers are steady as he wipes the mess from his eyes. When he can finally see, Zayn’s standing in the open front door and cast in shadow by the bright light outside. 

“Simon changed the code for the safe.” He says like he needs to explain why it took him ten minutes instead of two. 

Harry shrugs like he doesn’t really care. He just leans down and gets his arms under one of the body's armpits. Zayn grabs the feet and they lift in sync without having to speak. That night Simon shows them how a human body is not much different from a pig. 

Harry startles at the hand on his shoulder the next day at school. He settles when Niall starts to holler into his ear with a mouthful of braces about their upcoming game. 

“You ready for it?”

The morning air is crisp, a light fog slowly rolling out as sun starts to glint in the dewy grass. Harry hadn’t seen any of it until it was paired with Niall’s ruddy face. With his friend's arm over his shoulder Harry takes his first breath of fresh air of the day. He’s no longer Harry, the missing boy who was kidnapped by traffickers. He’s not Harry, the kid taken in by nefarious gang leader Simon Cowell. He’s just Harry, a naive teenager wearing the same starched uniform and crooked smile as the rest of them. 

“Yeah, been practicing my header.” 

When he says it he makes sure not to let his eyes flick over to Zayn. Harry doesn’t even have to look to know his brother’s halfway down the block with smoke billowing out of his mouth. The new habit of his pisses Harry off. 

“That’s a lad!” Niall tousles his hair fondly and Harry fights not to wince, “Knew these curls could do more than attract the birds. Speaking of,” he leans in conspiratorially, “I think miss Camille has her eye on you.”

Harry arches his neck to follow Niall’s not so subtle gesture. Across the yard a petite blond is coyly twirling her hair and pretending she didn’t want to get caught looking their way. She’s soft curves and delicate hands and probably smells like flowers. Exactly what Harry needs.

Niall whistles low, “All right, Mr. Wolf. I see that look in your eye. I fully support it, but I want details. We’re talking blow-by-blow action here, a proper twelve pager on my desk monday morning, good sir.”

Harry rolls his eyes and knocks Niall lightly in the stomach with his elbow. He takes one second to rake his hair back into pre-Niall shape and unbuttons the top two links of his shirt before turning around and sauntering across the grass. Camille notices, and the way she watches encourages him to pull out the smirk he’s been practicing in the mirror. 

“Camille,” he leans against the low brick wall she’s perched on, “I’ve been watching you,” he says boldly, because he’s a fifteen year old boy and supposed to believe he’s immortal. He ducks his head and looks up coyly, enjoying her pretty flush, “have you been watching me?”

Her accent is french and she tastes like cherry lip gloss. For a few moments she makes him forget.

**Author's Note:**

> Now I was supposed to be posting a very different story today, but then this took over and I wrote it in one sitting so who can argue with that? I'm still so in love with this 'verse. 
> 
> Find neat graphics for this fic and all of my stories on tumblr :)  
> https://zanniscaramouche.tumblr.com/tagged/v
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please leave a comment and tell me yay or nay :)


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